While I, too, am frustrated by the Phils seeming lack of aggressiveness in going after top of the line international talent, I am prepared to have a wait and see attitude for this reason...I just read in Baseball America that the Phils signed 61 international players, more than any other team in baseball.
If you subscribe to the theory that if there is hidden gold Uncle Sal Agostelli will find it then its at least feasible to expect this crop to produce more than its share of it. Although they have never verbalized it publicly it does seem as if the Phils have a philosophy of sharing the wealth making more sense than throwing it all onto 1-2 players. Time will tell if they are correct or not.
That said, and I admit its still April, I am alarmed at the lack of progress of so many of the teams minor league talent. The reality is that if Crawford, Williams, Appel, Cozens and a few others don't make it this organization will have taken a huge step backwards, a situation that could set them back 5 years.
Everything this organization has done over the past 2-3 years has been based around building around this crop of players. If they fail, it will have become a tremendous failed period.
It sure seems to me that this team has reached that fork in the road and what happens in 2017, both at the major league and minor league level, will determine what road they are likely to take..either possible contention in 2019 or back to the drawing board yet again.
I don't want to even contemplate the latter. Lets hope these 61 indicates the "more is better" theory of rebuilding.